SEPANG: Red Bull Racing team principle Christian Horner believes Marcin Budkowski, who recently resigned as FIA F1 technical head, should be out of the sport for 12 to 18 months in order to protect team investments.
Horner made it clear that the current three-month leave period enforced on Budkowski, who resigned earlier this week, by FIA was clearly too short.
The worry is that Budkowski, who in his capacity as technical head had great inside knowledge of the technology used by F1 teams, will be employed by a rival team.
“We take major issue with that if he does end up in another team. Obviously you place an enormous amount of trust in the role that Marcin has been responsible for,” said Horner.
“He has been in an extremely privileged position where he has recently been in people’s (team’s) wind tunnels, looking at intimate details of next year’s cars.
“Three months notice period for him to then turn up in a competitors team is entirely inappropriate and I am sure it will get discussed quite seriously at the next strategy group meeting. I believe the industry standard (notice) for a role such as Marcin’s would be anything between 12 and 18 months.
“It is important that teams can place trust in the governing body (FIA) that they can share and discuss their technical know how and secrets, which cost millions and millions of pounds, with confidence that the information does not end up with a rival team.”
Budkowski is widely expected to join an F1 team once he is cleared to do so. He had previously worked for Ferrari and McLaren before joining FIA.